His Player Efficiency Rating is 7th in the NBA. His PER is tied with Zion's. That's the guy we're calling inefficient?

Maybe you don't want to view him through counting stats-- totally fair. His assist rate is 1st in the NBA. Not assist totals. Assist *rate.* And his turnover rate is lower than Bron's, lower than that of more All-Stars than I can count on one hand, despite having a higher usage rate than any player in the NBA. That's inefficient?

Maybe you exclusively view efficiency through the lens of shooting-- which would be silly, but let's say that's what you do. Even through that very specific lens, he's shooting 44% from 3 in February on nearly 8 attempts per game. So we're choosing late February *of all months* to call him inefficient? lol

Maybe you think all of these stats are empty, and he simply doesn't affect winning. Then how is he third in the NBA in plus-minus, tied with Giannis? How is he second in the NBA in Value Over Replacement Player, tied with Giannis and Steph? How is his On/Off +8.1, compared to Dallas's other starters, Hardaway Jr. (-2.1), Richardson (-2.7), and Zingis (an appalling -8.8)?

I agree that the media has hyped Luka too much too quickly, as they basically always do with insanely young NBA stars, especially white stars. And while the media obviously named him the MVP favorite in part because he was clearly going to lead the NBA in usage this year (and he is), the narrative of course plays a role. I agree that that part of it is annoying. And I agree that Damian Lillard should've started over Doncic in the NBA All-Star Game.

... but we don't need to lie and say that Luka is inefficient. And we don't need to pretend he's Dallas's problem right now.